Kicking back

Assuming you have not yet strobed it and only timed it using the Boyer stator holes and their instructions you need to know these normally give an over advanced timing, so knock it back a few degrees at a time until it starts and then strobe it and adjust accordingly. Only then will you know if you are kicking it too weakly, on my 850 if I do not try hard enough I get a gentle pushback and mine is a Boyer timed correctly so no reason yours should not the the same. Now my B44 will kickback even with the same boyer box, it's the nature of the engine.

Years ago (4 decades if am honest) my father bought a posh (we were easy to impress back then) Gunson engine tuning kit with strobe light compression tester and other things in a big box (he still has it on its own shelf in his garage it was that expense back in the day). The light was the type that just connects to the HT. lead and plug if you lite a candle a mile away you would see better than the dim red flicker. After hours with head deep in the engine bay of the mk3 Cortina in a dark garage with the light off he gave up and bought another Gunson strobe (it was all you could get back then) but this far more advanced item connects to the battery and a single wire between plug and lead. As they say "AND THERE WAS LIGHT" (you still had to guess as old Ford timing marks gump all over the place). After years of sitting in the back of his garage (modern cars and bikes need no such attention) it now does my Commando thanks dad and all the other tool to. The point of this rambling is that strobes with external power supply are the best and if not grovaling in a dark garage/shed my help or outside in the dark at night (amusing the neighbours)

Karl +1, get a modern strobe with separate 12v feed from your car battery.

Check that the battery truly has 12.5 volts and try swapping the pickup leads over. A Commando always requires a fair effort to spin it but shouldn't kick back violently if everything is set up correctly.

My mains powered Gunson works very well though I expect the 12v battery powered ones should be just as good. That along with a Morgantune carb balancer are a must if you want to take the guessing out of running a Commando.

Also known as Colortune, not sure when Morgan came into it.

http://www.carbtune.co.uk/carbdtls.html

Inindependent tests Carbtune has been superiorto any other carburettor synchronizer.

The Carbtune Pro comes in two forms:

• 2-column system for twins
• 4-column system for fours, triples, or twins

Apologies, yes Morgan Carbtune to take the guessing out of balancing the carbs, along with a Gunson Strobe to take the guessing out of the timing = a sweet running Commando. Colour tune is for checking the mixture but IMO is a bit tricky because you can't very well load up the engine to see what is really going on.

William:

I appreciate kick back is your issue but add to that.

1) Ensure sump is drained

2) Use 20/50 oil or the like.

I had all sorts of trouble kicking over my Mk 3 850 before I moved back to 20/50. Now just one swift kick and it starts before it has chance to kick back. I use a 1989 Boyer and it will kick back with a flat or duff battery. Good luck.

At the risk of turning this into a thread about vintage strobe lights, 40 years ago I too had one of the kind in which both power and signal were achieved by interposing the strobe between coil and spark plug.

I have to say that I don't remember lack of light being a particular problem, but then again this was 40 years ago.

Since I still have it I'll have to drag it out and see if it still works.

Previously john_holmes wrote:

Karl +1, get a modern strobe with separate 12v feed from your car battery.